The Greatest Prank

Chapter 4

It took them two hours to confirm that not only had they no idea about the attack on Filch's cat, but that they had been at the party the entire time.

Nick was very quick to confirm that they had been there, and as Harry pointed out, Professor Richard was with them the entire time.

Not to mention that if one of their group had attacked the cat, it wouldn't still be alive...more or less. Richard was notorious for being very thorough.

Hermione was the first to find the Chamber of Secrets in her copy of Hogwarts: A History. Apparently Salazar Slytherin made some chamber years ago before he was chased out, leaving a monster behind.

The first thing that came to mind was to ask Richard where he got his purse, or if he could borrow it in the event he couldn't make his own. This was right up the warlock's alley.

The second Hermione heard about the purse, she damn near hexed the warlock to find out where she could get her own.

Still, the point was that Harry Potter had been missing from the feast when the cat was attacked, and since no one knew when she had been attacked, that made him the primary suspect.

Unfortunately for those stupid enough to voice such suspicions within hearing distance of the boy, and allowed themselves to be identified, were promptly slated to be Richard's new victim of the week and had to quickly brush up on their shields and dodging skills.

Harry was soon exonerated of the crime when he cheerfully pointed out that if he wanted to attack Mrs. Norris he would have followed in Professor Richard's footsteps and simply torched the furball rather than petrifying her. The fact this declaration was accompanied by Draco yelping as his pants were set on fire by a quickly thrown fireball to his ass and Harry's far too cheerful grin meant no one wanted to piss him off and declare him the Heir of Slytherin without concrete proof.

Besides, he had an airtight alibi of helping Nick out that night, so they really couldn't blame him for attacking the cat. The heir of Slytherin thing was also summarily thrown out as again, Harry quickly pointed out that if he wanted to cause such widespread havoc and chaos he would have followed Richard's example and started throwing fireballs at Slytherins rather than random muggleborns and so-called blood traitors.

The fact Hermione was very quick to follow up the dead silence of that proclamation by pointing out Harry was in fact a half-blood with a muggleborn mother and had always taken open offense to Draco using the word 'Mudblood' in his presence by using him as target practice in DADA that week meant that people were starting to wonder how they could have suspected him as the heir to begin with. The twins, slightly disappointed by the lack of chaos they could inflict, decided to make up for it by causing a few extra pranks than normal. McGonagall was not pleased.

"Wait...so Flitwick wants to reopen the Dueling club in hopes of calming everyone down?"

"As the current DADA teacher, I apparently have to oversee such things."

"And the fact you're more likely to use it as an excuse to set everyone on fire is...?"

"Coincidental," said Richard, sipping his tea.

Flitwick couldn't keep him out, but he could use it as a way to instruct the children how to cast shields properly with Richard providing the incentive.

"I'm being drafted to join because I'm the only one who can be reasonably expected to keep you under control, aren't I?" said Harry.

"Flitwick and the others (barring Snape) have agreed to waive any homework that you haven't done in the event I get carried away."